1. Wow, this turned out to be harder than I thought it'd be when I came up with the question. Choosing *one thing* is difficult, espcially when there's sex, and rollercoasters, and live music, and sporting events. And my answer is kind of cheesy, but after giving it a lot of thought, it really is the thing I enjoy above all else: spending time with my daughter. I am lucky enough to have a good relationship with her mother; I cannot think of a single conflict we've had over "custody" (I hate using that word because it sounds so litigious, and we have agreed on everything regarding our divorce and our daughter without using lawyers or courts). There is never a time that I want to see her that I'm unable to. She is so smart and silly and affectionate; it really is like spending time with a tiny me. Her mom tells me how she dotes over me when I'm not around - last week she told her mom that she could only give her one kiss because she "gave all [her] kisses to daddy". Awwwww. I'm a very lucky guy.

2. Travel outside of the atmosphere. Space travel evokes the child-like wonderment in me and I want more than anything to get so high that the sky turns black and you can see the curvature of the earth (OMG). Actually, my true desire is to set foot on another world, but just getting out of the atmosphere is something that could realistically happen in my lifetime, even if it's only that conceptual "airplane" that can get from New York to London in an hour by skipping off the atmosphere like a stone.

Ok, this wasn't all that hard for me so maybe I'm just not putting enough thought into it.

1 - Diving. I love diving. I love the weightlessness, the animals (who aren't afraid and will just come up to you and float there watching) and the way the light moves underwater. It has such an ethereal element to it, makes it almost seem surreal. Warm water only though. I've done fresh water diving and there's just not that much to see and 7milli wet suits with hoods are just uncomfortable.

2- Retire with money in the bank. I seriously would love to retire at 35. Then I'd be free. Alas, it is not to be so I guess I'll have to wait until I'm 60 like most others.

(Alternatively to retiring I guess I would settle for Marrying a Millionaire. Although that is equally as unlikely as number 2.)

1. I think probably my most favourite thing to do is to go to live performances - theatre, musicals, concerts, but my real favourite is small music clubs, where you can get really close to the musicians and where they're often glad to have a chat after the show. There's something really special about watching a live performance that TV, movies, DVDs just can't replicate. Because I have absolutely no artistic or creative talent whatsoever, I am hugely in awe of people who do.

2. The one thing I'd love to do is scuba in the sea, somewhere that has lots of colourful fish and where the water's warm and clear. I started scuba lessons three years ago, but had to stop when I had surgery. I'm thinking of booking myself on a dive holiday where I can get my PADI certification at the same time as having a lovely holiday.

1. spending time with pips, whether it's naked beach cavorting, drinking in a bar, or just hanging around the pad listening to music.

2. two girls at once would be cool... *ducks*

EJ: Lemme know if you ever need a dive buddy! I'm always looking for an excuse to acquire more debt through travel. Also, I've heard Cozumel (from a direct friend) has some of the most beautiful diving in the Atlantic.

1 Waking up, feeling her warmth, wrapping myself a little closer, she moves a little without waking; I lie with my face in her hair, thinking, this is perfect, and fight sleep.

2 Go to Berlin. Actually, it doesn't have to be Berlin, as long as she's there.

Go to Berlin.

I hear it takes your breath away.

I have no doubts about that, jonmc.

And for SCUBA I recommend the blue hole at Sharm el Sheik on the Sinai Peninsula, though I'm pretty chary about the whole diving thing, and also the whole hotel bombing thing; I hear it's magical.

1. Playin' hooky - you know, just ditching responsibilities for a day and going off somewhere to do stuff. This has to be a rarely-enjoyed and unplanned pleasure to be a pleasure at all, but somehow it can be ridiculously satisfying.

2. Write the best song I haven't written yet.

1. Well it's the truth: play bridge. It has everything - social interaction (I don't play online, only at clubs), it's challenging, it's relaxing and competitive at the same time. Plus, sometimes I win money. When I retire I am going to become one of the legions of people who play daily. My favorite times in life have been away at bridge tournaments where you wake up, play bridge, eat lunch, play bridge, eat dinner, play bridge. Drink. Sleep. Repeat for 7 days.

Yes, I'm a freak.

2. go to eastern europe.

1. Walking around a new place or town with my hand on the small of my beauty's back.

2. Skydive. Or what jonmc said (question - does a foursome count as two girls at once?)

Clarification - foursome=two girls, two guys.

EJ: Lemme know if you ever need a dive buddy!

And for SCUBA I recommend the blue hole at Sharm el Sheik on the Sinai Peninsula,

Sharm looks good, although it might be a bit hot for me. L'Estartit in Spain has good diving, and is close to Barcelona for other attractions.

(jon: I hope I'm one of the girls : )

1. eat
2. travel the world (and beyond) with my honey

1. Travel. There is no place better than "away." Especially when you have to cross an ocean.

2. Go to Russia. Or China. Or Egypt. Or Sweden. Or Italy. Or any of the bazillion other places I have yet to see. But I will. As soon as the offspring are old enough.

1. This is hard. Burdened with an ambling rambling brain, I long ago recognized that there are only a very few experiences in life which bring body, mind, heart, and soul all into the same place at once in a powerful unity of experience. They're these: playing music with people, being at the (ocean) beach in any weather or season, being physically intimate with one cared-for person, and travelling somewhere new. If I were forced to pick only one as ultimate favorite, I'd demote the beach and travel first, and then think very hard. And I think it's the music that would take second position.

2. Marry the man I love and together create a home.

1. Eat.
2. Retire.

Maybe I'm looking at it too simplistically.

Miko, you are so eloquent. I went through a similar thought process as you, but my post would have left all that good stuff out and said "Ultimately, I best like to get a little messed up and have sex." Which gives a certain impression.

2. Travel - American West, Mexico, Italy. . .

JanetLand, I nearly wrote 'Eat' for my first one. I get so much sensual pleasure from eating.

I best like to get a little messed up and have sex.

Ain't nothin' wrong with that.

1. Reading. I've foregone eating in order to purchase a book. And that's saying something.

2. Have a kid and try to be the best father I can be. I like a challenge.

I best like to get a little messed up and have sex.
I love you, rainbaby. We are simpatico.

Sciurus...you'll be an awesome dad. No doubt.

Not if I eat the baby because I spent my last fiver buying a book...

Um, I don't think a "good dad" would buy a book before food if there were kid involved. What with having to feed them and all. Might be just me though.

1. Goats

2. A Huge Manatee

Hey, go easy on my cousin, pal!

Sometimes babies deserve to be eaten. Especially if they cry a lot and you can't wait for a book to come out in paperback. I don't see that as an impediment to good parenting. You just hope your next kid isn't as whiny and/or delicious.

1. Travel with Mrs. Cake.

2. Be a Dad (and we're workin' on it)

*marks jrossi4r's comment as favorite*

But jrossi4r, what if you find that you've eaten your firstborn and all you have to show for it is some Dave Eggers claptrap or one of those stupid formulaic Harry Potter children's books? Whaddaya do then, puke up the kid and wish you had a magic wand that would wake the kid and burn the book at the same time? Tough call.

Well, Hugh, buyer's remorse is always a risk. But then again, so is breeder's remorse. I can't tell you how many times I've watched my kid throw a temper tantrum and thought, "Why aren't you the Complete Calvin and Hobbes?"

Heh! Or Where the Wild Things Are....

Travel with Mrs. Cake.

Travels With Mrs. Cake would be a great title for a kid's book.

2. Be a Dad (and we're workin' on it)
posted by papercake 26 July | 10:52

Well a papercake baby would certainly solve this whole read it/eat it/raise it dilemma.

Wow. Wow. I was thinking about this a lot before I read the thread. When I got to Miko's, I teared up, because she and I are exactly exactly of the same mind... only she put it more beautifuly than I ever could. I will make one very important ammendment at the end:

1. This is hard. Burdened with an ambling rambling brain, I long ago recognized that there are only a very few experiences in life which bring body, mind, heart, and soul all into the same place at once in a powerful unity of experience. They're these: playing music with people, being at the (ocean) beach in any weather or season, being physically intimate with one cared-for person, and travelling somewhere new. If I were forced to pick only one as ultimate favorite, I'd demote the beach and travel first, and then think very hard. And I think it's the music that would take second position.

2. Marry the man I love and together create a home. And have kids with him.

I'll do it.

I love history, and I have very peaceful times in old cemeteries. The weather's been too hot for any new forays, so I've shelved it until fall. Any time spent in nature, too, especially when I'm able to view wildlife, means so much to me. It's so hard to narrow it down to one.

What I'd truly love to do, someday, is travel to England, and try to find graves of my ancestors. I have an old photo from 1880 of my great-great-grandparents wedding, and the strange thing is that the bride and her sisters were replicated in my aunts. Family history just means so much to me.

Speck, yeah, there's a whole world of stuff implied in my extremely general "create a home," and the offspring are a likely part of it.

1. Racing this. There is nothing in the world like totally and completely focussing your entire energy on a single, selfish, ultimately meaningless task for refreshing the mind. It's been way too long since I got out there and I miss it a lot.

2. Travel - I have travelled a fair bit for things like work and racing, but I want to travel to places just because.

1. Wrassling with my 2-year-old son. He just loves the roughhousing.

2. Make a movie.